Hope
by littlecat1231
Summary: Sam agrees to work with Azrael. His sense of self-preservation isn't the best for the time being. Part 2 of 'Fly So High and Fall With Grace' Series


After not knowing what to really after reluctantly agreeing to work with Azrael, Sam decided that going back to his motel room was the best course of action.

He had assumed that Azrael would have flown off the moment that he had agreed, only come to him when needed be. However, surprisingly, she had stayed. Waiting for Sam to finish his meal and pack up his stuff, staying quiet and smiling politely, watching the other occupants in the diner.

It unnerved Sam slightly, not that she put out a creepy vibe or did anything untoward the civilians, but because he didn't really know what to expect from her. Most Angels would have left without so much of a thank you and when they spoke they would have been impassive and detached about it. But not Azrael. For all intents purposes, she was very polite, only getting angry when he mentioned the possibility of someone hurting Castiel. And that's what bothered Sam, he didn't know how to gauge her reaction.

When he left the diner, paying for his meal with a small smile to the waitress, Azrael silently joined him. Sam made sure that she was in his line of sight at all times, he may have agreed to work with her but that didn't mean that he trusted her.

Walking across the small parking lot by the side of the diner, he gave the Impala a quick glance to made sure that it was still there, undamaged. Sometimes, in the corner of his eye, he could have sworn that he could see Dean leaning against her side. Only when he looked, he would realise that he was imagining it.

When he was halfway across the lot, Sam turned to face Azrael.

"What are doing?" He asked bluntly.

Azrael stared at him, looking unsure. Looking around quickly she seemed to be looking for an anything that she had missed. When her eyes landed back on Sam she finally answered with,

"Helping you get your brother back along with Castiel."

"No." He said quickly. "I mean, why are you following me? Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be flying about in Heaven or something? Looking for clues to what happened?"

Azrael seemed to flinch at the mention of Heaven and Sam filed that information away for later, he didn't want to derail this conversation at the moment.

"As I said before I do have information on a lot of things." She spoke, voice calm. "But what I do not know is what exactly happened on that night. I know that the Leviathans were involved, Dean and Castiel along with yourself and two demons fought them off and somehow defeated them." She stated."But in order to help I need to know the specifics of what you all did."

Sam thought for several moments, the memory of what happened that night still somewhat fresh in his mind. He had replayed it over and over again in his head trying to figure out what he could have done differently in order to save his brothers. At night, when he was trying to get what little sleep he could, his mind would plague him with nightmares of Dean, Cas and Kevin disappearing and dying right in front of him, just always out of reach, never to be seen again.

Looking towards the motel, Sam made the decision that if they were going to have this conversation, it was better to do so in private. Being in public, even when it seemed like they were alone, it wasn't a good idea to have these types of discussions, as you didn't know who could be listening. Even if they were surrounded by human people, it wasn't a good idea. The looks that he and Dean have gotten in the past were a testament to that. There had even been a few time where their dissuasions had been overheard by a regular person and they mistook them planning a murder or something along those lines. In those cases, the police had been called, and that had just made their job a hell of a lot harder. Especially now. The Leviathans had made them out to be crazed killers and now the general populace believed them to be dead. It wouldn't be a good idea for someone to overhear and call the cops, only for said cops to find out that 'The Crazed Sam Winchester' was still alive and kicking. That would raise too many questions.

This was also the main reason why he and Dean avoided cities and overly large towns. Too big of a risk that someone would recognise them.

"Come on." He said, motioning his head toward the motel. "We'll talk inside."

Azrael silently fell into step beside him.

Once they were in the motel room, Sam placing his shoulder bag on the table, he when to the counter to grab the bottle of whiskey and two glasses that he always kept at hand. He felt as though this particular talk wasn't going to be very comfortable, so he needed a stiff drink.

Filling one of the clean glasses half way and downing two fingers, he let his eyes fall back to Azrael.

She was standing by the door, her eyes moving around the room taking all it had to offer. It wasn't much, but it was home. Sam thought sarcastically.

Downing the rest of the glass and refilling, Sam waved a hand in the direction of the small wooden table and chairs. "Have a seat."

Azrael smiled in thanks and gracefully sat in the chair that was closest to her. Sam sat in the other, his back facing the counter so that he was fulling facing the door. He placed the bottle and glasses by his side and offered her a drink. She tilted her head in a very Castiel like manner and her glaze appeared to examine the bottle and its contents. She considered it for a few moments before nodding and thanking him in turn.

Azrael picked up the offered drink gingerly and took the tiniest of sips. The expression of indifference morphed into one of approval before taking another larger mouthful.

Taking a deep breath, Sam went through the events that lead up to the moment where Dean had disappeared along with Castiel. Starting at the point where Meg had driven the Impala through the gates at SucroCorp to when they had found Kevin and had split up in order to destroy the labs. After that, he explained how he and Kevin had busted through the doors just in time to see Dean stab Dick with the 'Bone of a Righteous Mortal washed in the Three Bloods of The Fallen' while Cas held Dick down. Azrael just sat there quietly, nodding at crucial points, like when he mentioned the Bone and Kevin.

"Then he exploded and Dean and Cas were gone," Sam stated soberly. "And while I had my back turned Crowley took Kevin." The bitterness in his own words left an unsavoury taste in Sam's mouth.

"The Prophet of the Lord?" Azrael asked, concern laced in her voice. He nodded, taking a long sip whiskey. It was safe to say that he was more than tipsy at this point.

Getting inebriated while an unfamiliar and questionable being was in the room and the only person in said room, wasn't one of Sam's brightest ideas. But hey, at this point there wasn't much she could do to him anyway. He wasn't much of a bargaining chip anymore and if she was here to kill him, well, it not like would he mind and no one was around to miss him.

"Have any of the other Angel's discussed this with you?" The sharpness of her tone immediately pulled him out of his drunken stupor. Her face had hardened and her mouth was tight.

"They, er, didn't seem to have any idea where he is?" Why Sam had worded it as a question, he didn't know. Maybe it was time to stop drinking. For now, that is. He can go right back to drowning his sorrows when she leaves.

"That," She bites out, "is unacceptable." She drains that rest of her whiskey and oh, look at that. Somehow they managed to drink the whole bottle between them. It had been almost full when they started and Sam wasn't sure how much either of them had drunk. If she was like Cas than alcohol wouldn't affect her much unless it was in large quantities. He smiled a small bit at the memory of coming back to the motel to find Cas completely drunk after drinking a whole liquid store. "Why are you smiling? This is not a good thing." Azrael's voice pulled him back again, the curiosity and displeasure present in her voice.

"Just remembering something." He didn't want to elaborate. "So, that's about everything." He said, quickly changing the subject. "What do you know?" He asked forcefully.

"I believe that when Dean stabbed Dick Roman and he exploded," she said slowly, "It momentarily opened a rift, which forced all the remaining Leviathan back into Purgatory." She was staring at her empty glass, her index tracing the rim. "It possible that because our brothers were standing so close at that point in time, they could have gotten dragged through."

Sam perked up at her words. It the best and pretty much only lead that he had gotten in months.

"So they're in Purgatory?" He asked, hopefully bleeding into the question.

"It the most likely possibility."

"So how do we get to Purgatory?" His mind was clearing quickly. The buzz of alcohol dissipating.

Azrael looked disappointed as well as sheepish.

"That, unfortunately, is something that I don't know." Sam deflated. "Purgatory and its secrets were something that was kept from us. Only a select few knew that much about it and they are either dead, incarcerated or untrustworthy. Also, Death is still cleaning up after all the mess that was made over the past couple of years, making him unavailable." She uttered the last part.

"Well, at least we have a starting point." He noted. "Where do we find information on Purgatory? He inquired. He could easily find a mass amount of information on it from the internet and he had a pile of research already from when they were fighting Leviathan, but it was sketchy at best and didn't know what information to trust. Anything that Azrael could find could be better.

"The library in Heaven could have some information, but that is uncertain." She informed him. "I will have to go there to see." She grimaced at that. Before Sam could ask her about it she stood up and placed the glass forcefully on the table, the glass cracking slightly under the pressure.

"But first I need to find out what is happening with the Prophet. I will need to make a few calls. Will you be here when I come back? Finding you the first time was relatively tricky."

"Uh, should be?" He answered, still not sure if he trusted her. Staying in one place for too long was never a good idea in the first place. Besides, she didn't say how long she was going to be gone for.

Azrael nodded.

"That's good. I will see you soon." Then she proceeded to walk out of the door.

Sam sighed, got up and through the empty bottle in the bin. Before he knew it was a smiling. Turley smiling. He couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

For the first time in months he a proper hope that he was going to find them. He told himself not to get too excited, that he still didn't know if this was all some kind of trick, but it was a losing battle.

He stretched his arms over the top of his head, the tips of his fingers brushing the ceiling and rolled his head side-to-side, trying to get the knots and kinks out of his back, shoulder and neck, he readied himself for a night of extra warding for the motel room and research. Sketchy was better than nothing.


End file.
